Our latest “Freakonomics” column in the New York Times Magazine, which is about how people get good at whatever they’re good at, is as of this moment No. 5 on the list of most e-mailed articles in the Times. Here’s our webpage with further information about the psychology professor Anders Ericsson and other researchers in the Expert Performance Movement. [P.S.: . . .
Our new “Freakonomics” column in the New York Times Magazine asks a fundamental — but very hard – question: When someone is very good at a given thing, what is it that actually makes him good? To find the answer to this question, we turned to Anders Ericsson, a professor of psychology at Florida State University and the ringleader of . . .
Apparently, Jane Siberry doesn’t appreciate people calling attention to her website, which allows people to pay as they wish to download Siberry’s music. I liked the idea, and blogged about it a few days ago. But here’s what Siberry wrote on her MySpace journal today: The ‘self-determined pricing’ policy of the store is in the spotlight again, freakonomics has an . . .
The National Association of Realtors has more than its fair share of adversaries, including the U.S. Department of Justice (which is suing the N.A.R. for anti-competitive practices) and the Consumer Federation of America (whose executive director recently told the N.Y. Times what he thinks of the N.A.R.: ”Because the industry functions as a cartel, it is able to overcharge consumers . . .
Much like Paul Feldman, the bagel guy we wrote about in Freakonomics, Jane Siberry has decided to offer her wares to the public via an honor-system payment scheme. She gives her fans four choices: 1. free (gift from Jane) 2. self-determined (pay now) 3. self-determined (pay later so you are truly educated in your decision) 4. standard (today’s going rate . . .
Time magazine thinks so. Malcolm Gladwell, a previous member of Time‘s 100-most-influential club, wrote a very good essay about Levitt’s rare talents. Here’s the kicker: In Freakonomics and in his astonishing, wide-ranging academic work at the University of Chicago, Levitt, 38, reminds us that we owe a bigger debt to those with the humility to go wherever logic and discovery . . .
I’ve spent a lot of time around economists the past few years, and a lot of time around journalists for longer than that. It strikes me that our work is often similar: have an idea; gather data; analyze, synthesize, and present your findings. There are significant differences, of course. To most journalists, especially those on deadline, the data that’s gatherable . . .
The conventional wisdom says it is. But research on the subject is considerably more murky. (Hat tip: Ben Elder Jr.)
Arthur Hertzberg was a prolific and polemical rabbi, scholar, and thorn in the side of Jewish institutionalism. (Although I rarely talked economics with him, I’m sure he would have embraced Schumpeter’s concept of “creative destruction” as his own.) I was very fortunate to have known him, even more fortunate to have been married by him, and very saddened by his . . .
A while back, Levitt and I wrote an article about a former economist in Washington, D.C., who sells bagels and donuts on an honor-system payment scheme. We later adapted that article for inclusion in Freakonomics. Now Levitt has posted a National Bureau of Economics working paper that looks at the Bagel Man’s profit maximization, an important element that we didn’t . . .
Maybe if he checked out this picture, he’d consider it.
Steve O’Keefe, editor of smarteconomist.com writes: Would you mind posting an announcement on the Freakonomics Blog about the new Smart Interviews feature at SmartEconomist.com? Here’s the announcement: SmartEconomist.com Launches Smart Interviews Fiona M. Scott Morton, Professor of Economics at Yale University’s School of Management, is on the hot seat at SmartEconomist.com April 17-21. Morton has agreed to field questions for . . .
This past Friday night, the ABC News program 20/20 showed an hour-long John Stossel special based on Freakonomics. Because our involvement was quite limited — we helped brainstorm the segments and sat for interviews, etc. — I can say without bragging that it was really, really good. A large and very hard-working team of producers took a bunch of our . . .
A few months ago, Levitt blogged here about a purported link between nutrition and crime. This link derived from a study by Bernard Gesch, a physiologist at the University of Oxford, who took a group of British prisoners, divided them into a control group and an experimental group, and fed the experimental group nutrition supplements (containing vitamins, minerals, and fatty . . .
I was quite sure that the National Right-to-Ride Carpool Coalition was a parody but in fact it doesn’t seem to be. The organization is trying to get pregnant women permission to use H.O.V. highway lanes. Here are a couple tips the group offers to pregnant women who might be pulled over for driving solo — well, seemingly solo: Carry documentation . . .
Sudhir Venkatesh, the then-grad student who hung out for several years with a Chicago crack-selling gang, and who is the star of Chapter 3 in Freakonomics, knows an awful lot more about urban life than just the crack gang. On this weekend’s edition of the NPR radio program This American Life (this site tells you when the show plays in . . .
Goodness, it’s been busy. This entire year, and this week in particular. I meant to sit down and write some long and perhaps meaningful note of thanks to everyone involved in the publication of Freakonomics, but time has slipped away and soon the seder guests will be arriving. So let this stand as a very brief thank-you, from Levitt and . . .
We all know about payola in the record industry, in the medical industry, and elsewhere. Why should journalism be any different? Still, as a journalist, I’d count this story about journalistic hush money (here’s another article) to be one of the most disgusting things I’ve seen in a while. If this turns out to be true, Jared Paul Stern makes . . .
A team of German economists has found that the risk of punishment is an essential factor in a money-making venture. Common sense already tells us this is true. But it is nice to see it confirmed in an academic study. The economists designed a set of investment games in which participants could join one of two groups: Group A, which . . .
Why else would the two stadiums in Williamsport, Pa., where the Little League Baseball World Series is played, be moving back their fences 20 feet? Well, it turns out that Little Leaguers at this level are hitting more home runs than doubles, which isn’t the way it works in the Bigs. It’s funny: MLB’s idea of a thrilling game is . . .
Levitt and I will be in London early next week to promote the U.K. paperback edition of Freakonomics. Just in time for our trip, the Harvard economists Ed Glaeser and David Cutler ask (and answer) the very question that I’ve long wondered about: Why Do Europeans Smoke More Than Americans? “Almost one-half of the smoking difference,” they write, “appears to . . .
Wouldn’t you know it? On the same day that I was poking fun at Amazon.com for one if its e-mail blitzes, they launch a podcast called Amazon Wire, featuring Steven Soderbergh, Blondie, The Flaming Lips, and … me. The essay I read was adapted from the first “Freakonomics” column we wrote for the N.Y. Times Magazine, about the Yale economist . . .
In Freakonomics, we wrote a good bit about first names — how popular names move their way down the socioeconomic ladder, how “high education” names differ from “low education” names, how black names differ from white names, etc. It’s only natural, therefore, that someone would take a look at data on names and try to profit from it. That’s the . . .
Or, failing that, it needs to wait a few hours before sending out its e-mail blitzes. Here’s what just showed up in my in-box: Dear Amazon.com Customer, Congratulations, [placeholder for winning team]! As someone who has purchased sports-related products, we thought you should be the first to see our selection of NCAA championship products. NCAA Championship Cap Check out our . . .
Nathan Englander is, or at least was, a startlingly good young writer who in 1999 published a collection of short stories called For the Relief of Unbearable Urges. The book sold a lot of copies, won some awards, and generally set everyone talking about how talented and insightful Englander was, especially for such a young writer. (He was the Jonathan . . .
Our upcoming “Freakonomics” column in The New York Times Magazine is about how people hate the I.R.S. for the wrong reasons. The article should be available online here by late Sat. night (4/1/06), and we’ll also post an accompanying page elsewhere on this site with research data, etc.
Some of you have undoubtedly already seen this, but if you haven’t, take a look at what happens when compelling data meets beautiful (and useful) design: WorldMapper, “a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest.” While there are a lot of interesting categories — tourism, immigration, population — I’m hoping . . .
Yayi Boni, an economist who used to run the West African Development Bank, has been elected president of the African country of Benin. He is at least the second economist to have recently become president of an African nation, joining Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia. To the best of my knowledge, there has never been a U.S. president who was also . . .
A couple days ago, Levitt wrote on this blog that Tyler Cowen, half of the dynamic Marginal Revolution duo (along with Alex Tabarrok), will start writing a monthly economics column for the New York Times business section. I just wanted to add my congratulations — for George Mason University’s miraculous appearance in the Final Four, I mean. Plainly, just about . . .
We get a lot of different kind of e-mail response to our book: some friendly, some antagonistic, some curious, etc etc etc. This one, which came the other day, may be one of my all-time favorites: Hello. I am Rohan Patel, I am 10 years old. Your book was amazing! I loved it, but I found one mistake in it. . . .
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